“It’s the first thing I read every day.” — Brigadier General (retired) Russ Howard, founding director of The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
1. David Sanger:
President Trump declared on Tuesday that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” amid mounting evidence that the United States was considering joining Israel’s bombing campaign against the country.
Mr. Trump made his statements on his social media site before he met with his national security team for a little more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon. But even before they met, there were signs that the Pentagon, anticipating that orders for a strike might be forthcoming, sent about three dozen refueling aircraft to Europe that could be used to assist fighter jets protecting American bases and personnel in the Middle East.
The aircraft would also be capable of refueling B-2 bombers flown out of the United States on their way to targets in Iran, presumably starting with Fordo, the under-the-mountain nuclear enrichment center that Iran built around 15 years ago to withstand the heaviest strikes.
Mr. Trump’s increasingly martial tone — a sharp reversal from his announced confidence two weeks ago that a nuclear deal with Iran was easily within reach — came only hours after he cut short his attendance at the Group of 7 summit in Alberta, Canada, saying he needed to return to Washington to deal with the situation in the Middle East. (Source: nytimes.com)
2. Trump “may decide he needs to take further action” to stop Iran enriching uranium, vice-president JD Vance said yesterday. In comments on X.com, Vance, who has taken a more isolationist stance on foreign policy than many other Republicans, said Trump was “only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals”. But he also wrote that the president “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian [uranium] enrichment”, referring to the process that can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material. (Source: ft.com)
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